SKYFARER – Joseph Brassey

Joseph Brassey’s Skyfarer is a delightful throwback to science fantasy of the 1970’s and 80’s.

Aimee de Laurent is fresh out of the academy where she has studied wizardry (wizarding?). She is now apprentice to one of the best teachers in the entire galaxy, Harkon Bright, and they are about to head out on a very long (years) expedition to explore the galaxy in their skyship.

As they begin, however, Aimee casts the initial spell to set their ship on its journey (Spell-Casting 101, right?) and something goes wrong. Very wrong. Aimee and Harkon end up far away and in the middle of a fight. They are part of a resistance protecting an island planet, New Providence. Attacking the planet are magic-wielding knights. Their leader is the cruel Lord Azrael of the Eternal Order. He is seeking a rare gem, the Axiom Diamond, that could bring great power to Azrael’s masters.

It doesn’t take long for Aimee and Harkon to recognize the vicious brutality of the Eternal Order and to choose their side. And even though Aimee is only a recent graduate from wizarding school, she and Azrael will face off time and time again through the course of the book. While she will need every ounce of skill and luck to survive … so will Azrael.

There’s a lot of high drama here. This is really fine space opera, and as such, the villains are clearly bad, the good guys, our heroine and her mentor, are clearly good. And the goal that each is looking to obtain is as sparkling clear as a diamond.

Even though the characters and tropes all seem familiar, I really enjoyed this story. Joseph Brassey spins a good yarn and we get sucked in. There are reasons that certain ideas and stock characters become tropes and stock characters … because they work. Or at least they can work when created from the pen of someone who knows what he’s doing.

This is fast and fun and a great way to spend a weekend reading.

Looking for a good book? Skyfarer by Joseph Brassey is a swiftly moving space opera that is a lot of fun to read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.